N.J. residents have donated tons of supplies to Ukraine, but orgs struggle to ship it all

In the midst of a Russian invasion, Ukraine put out a call for help, and New Jersey answered—quickly. Churches and cultural organizations stepped up to collect tons of humanitarian aid to ease the suffering of millions of people trapped by war.

Tons of humanitarian aid collected during the past two weeks has made it to the Meest-America warehouse in Woodbridge, a Ukrainian company that is the main depot for the relief effort in New Jersey. But lots of humanitarian aid has yet to be delivered, as the non-profits figure out a way to pay for the high cost of shipping.

“Our warehouse is completely full now,” said Myroslava Downey, a Meest-America spokeswoman, said Friday. Since the war began, the company been shipping humanitarian aid to Ukraine at a deep discount, but the flood of donations has made it expensive for non-profits.

“What we need now is money,” said Jerry Kuzemczak, a trustee at the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey in Whippany. Last week, the center shipped its first 12 containers of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, at a cost of $66,000.

This week, the center asked people to stop donating materials—a “pause,” Kuzemaczak said, to give the center time to raise money for future shipments. Donations can be made to its website, uaccnj.org.

Shipping by air is quicker, but far more expensive than by cargo ship. The discount rate is $2.30 per pound by air, and $1 a pound by sea.

Kuzemaczak said the volunteers collected over 600,000 pounds of humanitarian aid and filled 12,000 boxes over the past two weekends. Ukrainian youth worked the parking lot, collecting over $11,000 in donations. He said the center checked into chartering a cargo plane, but at $380,000, “it was absolutely cost-prohibitive,” he said.

Gov. Phil Murphy visited the center last Saturday with Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker. The center got permission to use a state-owned warehouse in Newark for future shipments, plus promises from the federal delegation to cut through bureaucratic tape to help with transportation, Kuzemaczak said.

“You have to remember, this is not a short-term thing,” Kuzemczak said. “We have to develop a stream. It has to become an efficient operation.” He estimated that the center still has three containers left to ship.

Two Ukrainian churches, Holy Ascension Cathedral in Clifton and St. Stephen’s in Toms River, also stopped accepting donations. Holy Ascension now has to figure out how to move the two trailers full of relief supplies from its parking lot.

“Right now, the logistics are very difficult,” said Rev. Oleksii Holchuk, the pastor at Holy Ascension. Holchuk said he planned to meet with Passaic County officials following a prayer vigil at the courthouse on Friday.

Meest-America is also looking for financial help to offset the cost of shipping tons of food, medicine, and supplies to Ukraine. Downey said that Meest as a for-profit company cannot accept donations, but is encouraging people to send money to Razom, Inc., a Ukrainian non-profit that will pay for shipping.

Downey said the company has also gotten about 60 volunteers who help staff sort through the boxes, separating the high priority items for shipment by air. She estimated that it currently takes between five to eight days to get relief supplies to Poland and then into Ukraine.

The relief supplies are flown into Poland, and then trucked into Ukraine, which is highly dangerous. “It’s not business as usual,” she said.

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Richard Cowen may be reached at [email protected].